Just about every action group, neighbourhood association and political party with an interest in the Cala Mosca building development got together last week to discuss the forthcoming construction of 1500 properties on the very last kilometre of the Orihuela Costa coastline.

The two most vocal organisations in the area, the FAOC-Federación de Asociaciones de Orihuela Costa and CLARO – Partido para Orihuela Costa, met with groups, including representatives from Podemos and Cambiemos Orihuela, where everyone was updated on the very latest situation as well as discussing the best way forward in a combined effort to block the project that would put even more pressure on the area’s already overworked infrastructure.

The very final stage of the construction project of more than 1,500 apartments in Cala Mosca, formally called ‘Alameda del Mar’, is currently under public consultation. For many years, action by environmental groups, neighborhood associations and political parties (which even took the matter to the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions) has objected to the development on ecological grounds. The area shelters protected species of flora and fauna and even a micro-reserve of the plant “jarilla cat head”, which they say must be protected at all costs.

The meeting agreed on the need to convene mobilise all other neighborhood groups and residents within the coming days, so that people are able to express their rejection of a project that will see yet another massive construction model that has already proven a failure from the social, environmental and economic point of view.

Once again, they say, we are faced with the threat that, finally and despite all the efforts, the last kilometre of virgin beach of the municipality of Orihuela will be buried under thousands of tons of cement.